GRIEF:Pat Smith (above) says the government has not given her a straight answer on the death of her son, Sean (inset below), who was killed in the attack on the US Consulate in Libya.

(EPA)

GRIEF: Pat Smith (inset says the government has not given her a straight answer on the death of her son, Sean (right), who was killed in the attack on the US Consulate in Libya. (
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WASHINGTON — The grieving mother of one of four Americans slain at the US Consulate in Libya was furious yesterday that the government still can’t tell her what happened a day after President Obama strangely said the tragedy was “not optimal.”

“Everyone’s giving me different answers. I don’t have good answers, and they are not giving me good answers. Some of the people [from the government] looked me right in the eye and lied to me,” said Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, a State Department technology expert who died with Ambassador Chris Stevens and two security officials in the attack in Benghazi last month.

“Somebody is lying, or else these crooks are running our country, and I don’t choose to believe that,” she told The Post by phone from her San Diego home yesterday. “My son is dead, and I don’t know why, and I don’t know why nobody went out to help my son.”

Speaking of Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the decisions made on security at the consulate, Smith said: “They’re on the top. They’re the big cheeses. If they didn’t make the decision, they should have been the ones that made the decision.”

Obama spoke about the government’s handling of the attack in an interview on “The Daily Show” Thursday, after host Jon Stewart asked whether the feds provided “not the optimal response, at least to the American people” — a reference to initial administration claims that the attack resulted from a demonstration brought on by an anti-Islam video.

“Here’s what I’ll say: If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal. We’re going to fix it. All of it,” Obama responded.

The comment drew outrage from Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, and comes as Obama and Mitt Romney prepare for their third and final debate, this one in Florida and focusing on foreign policy.

“Well, even from someone like the president, who has never known what these kinds of tragedies are about and the service and sacrifice that people make, it’s still just — you know, I can’t even get angry. It’s just so inappropriate,” McCain told Fox News.

“And I’m sure that the families of those brave Americans are not amused,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Smith vented to The Daily Mail of London about Obama’s “not optimal” remark.

“It’s insensitive to say my son is not very optimal; he is also very dead. I’ve not been ‘optimal’ since he died, and the past few weeks have been pure hell,” she told the British newspaper.

In her interview with The Post, Smith denied making the remarks to The Daily Mail. She called them a lie, saying, “I did not feel that.”

And she said she hadn’t heard Obama’s “Daily Show” interview.

When she read Obama’s “not optimal” remark, Smith said: “I did not hear them. I did not agree with them. I don’t want them used in connection with me.”

The Obama camp yesterday offered no further clarification of the president’s comments.

The attack in Libya is certain to come up in Monday’s debate, for which moderator Bob Schieffer has announced he will ask two sets of questions on the Middle East and the “new face of terrorism.”

The controversy over the Libya attack sparked one of the hottest exchanges between Obama and Romney in their debate last week.

And Paul Ryan again hammered Obama on the issue yesterday.

“Look around the world, turn on your TV, and what we see in front of us is the absolute unraveling of the Obama administration’s foreign policy,” the vice-presidential candidate told WTAQ radio in Wisconsin.

“I’m excited we’re going to have a chance to talk about that on Monday,” Ryan added.